The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 366 Your Majesty, your servants will defend the Qing Dynasty to the death! (Please vote and subscribe)
"It's Lan'er, come in quickly!"

Hearing Concubine Yi's voice, Emperor Xianfeng finally put down the memorial he had been reading for nearly an hour, forced a smile, and told An Dehai beside him, "An Dehai, serve the meal!"

"twitter."

When An Dehai went to arrange for the meal to be served, Concubine Yi had already led a girl, who was about thirteen or fourteen years old, with a round face, big eyes, a small nose, and fair skin, into Emperor Xianfeng's study in Haiyan Hall.

The girl was wearing a blue embroidered cheongsam, a big bun in her hair, and high-heeled shoes, which made her originally petite figure look a lot taller. When she walked, she seemed to be swaying and graceful, with a bit of fairy-like air, which made Xianfeng a little greedy.

Although Wanzhen's appearance was only above average, and she was cute, but not absolutely beautiful, the quality of Emperor Xianfeng's harem was worrying. For more than 200 years, the Qing imperial family had been picking up beauties from the people of the Eight Banners, who had a population of only tens of millions. Before the beauties had a chance to reproduce, they were plucked out by Emperor Xianfeng's predecessors. By the time it came to his generation, Concubine Yi was already considered extremely outstanding. Wasn't Wanzhen, who was obviously prettier than Concubine Yi, also a beauty?

It was such a pity to send such a beautiful girl to Luo Xueyan as his wife. Xianfeng even felt a little regretful.

"That La Wanzhen respectfully wishes His Majesty the best of health."

Wanzhen's timid voice of greeting was already ringing out.

Xianfeng was in a trance, and his thoughts had returned to reality - he was the Emperor Xianfeng who loved the country more than beauty!
"Please stand up." Xianfeng said to Wanzhen with a smile.

When Wanzhen stood up, she also secretly looked at Xianfeng - numb, thin, and with a smoky face, is this the emperor of the Qing Dynasty? Can he beat the Taiping rebels like this?
She was originally somewhat reluctant to "marry down" Luo Xueyan. Even when Ronglu came to her house and told her how handsome, young and rich Luo Xueyan was, she was still a little reluctant.

No matter how good Luo Xueyan is, can he be better than the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty?

But now that I have seen the emperor's true appearance, it seems that Luo Xueyan's appearance is probably better than the emperor's.

Xianfeng didn't know that he had been despised by the little beauty in front of him, and he was still feeling sorry for her in his heart. She originally had the opportunity to enter the palace, but now she could only go to Shanghai to be the governor's wife.

Thinking of this, Xianfeng comforted her gently: "Wanzhen, it is really a bit unfair for you to marry far away in Shanghai this time."

It turns out that Wanzhen came to bid farewell to Xianfeng today.

Luo Xueyan's bride-welcoming envoy Weng Tonghe had been in Beijing for some time. With the help of Weng Xincun, the etiquette of accepting the bride's marriage proposal, asking for the bride's name, accepting the marriage proposal, accepting the betrothal gifts, and asking for the date of marriage had all been completed. The betrothal gifts had also been transported there in dozens of carriages, almost filling up the Nara family's house. Now all that was left was the "bride-welcoming ceremony"!

Of course, it was impossible for Luo Xueyan to go to Beijing to welcome her in person, so this matter still had to be done by Weng Tonghe on her behalf.

In addition, because this marriage was an appointed one, Ronglu had to make another trip to Jiangnan to serve as a bride escort.

However, this time they could not fight in the territories of Yang Xiuqing and Hong Xiuquan. They had to sail out from Tianjin and take a large ship south.

The ship was chartered by Luo Xueyan. It was a second-hand 2,000-ton "giant ship" newly purchased by Qichang Foreign Company. It was named "Jili" and was already waiting at Dagukou Wharf.

So Wanzhen had to set off south.

Xianfeng asked Concubine Yi to bring Wanzhen to say goodbye, and said a few words to win her over, so that the girl would not feel wronged.

"No, I don't feel wronged." Wanzhen glanced at Xianfeng secretly again. She didn't feel wronged at all in her heart. Then she clenched her fist and said polite words: "Now our Qing Dynasty has encountered a difficult situation. We must unite as one and tide over the difficult times together.

Although the emperor will surely win if he leads the Eight Banners to fight against the Taiping rebels, it is my duty as a little girl to do my part and I will use my strength to the best of my ability.

When I get to the south and marry Luo Xueyan, I will urge him to march to Jiangning as soon as possible, and cooperate with our Eight Banners' new army and foreign rifle team to kill all the Taiping rebels! "

Xianfeng was stunned for a moment: "Wanzhen, you are quite good at speaking, did your sister teach you?"

Wanzhen shook her head and said, "No, Your Majesty, all the young and old men in the city say so now."

"Oh?" Xianfeng was stunned again, "Are the Eight Banners descendants in Beijing so motivated now?"

Wanzhen nodded: "Isn't it? I heard from those old and young men that nowadays, fighting does not require proficiency in archery and horsemanship. It doesn't matter if the men living in the city don't have the opportunity to ride horses. As long as they can fire foreign rifles, they can help the emperor fight the Taiping!
Those foreign rifles are very powerful. If they can be lined up and fired together, their power will be even greater. A volley of gunfire can knock down all the Taipao on the opposite side. Your Majesty, are they right? "

"That seems to be correct." Xianfeng frowned slightly.

This theory is similar to what Woren, Weng Xincun and others said in their memorials.

Moreover, based on Xianfeng’s own experience, it seems to be correct!

Xianfeng knew how to shoot with a foreign rifle, and his shooting skills were quite accurate. In any case, his skills were much better than his riding and archery skills!
If you ask a cripple and a smoker to ride a horse and shoot arrows, ten of them together cannot beat Prince Gong, and a hundred of them together cannot beat Senggelinqin. But when it comes to firing foreign guns, he is no worse than Prince Gong and Senggelinqin.

No matter how high your martial arts skills are, you can be killed with one shot!

Thinking of this, Xianfeng already felt that the idea of ​​the Eight Banners New Army was not a bad one.
Wanzhen smiled and said, "I also heard that these days, outside the Wanping camp, there are Eight Banners soldiers joining the army every day, ready to take up arms to defend the Qing Dynasty!"

"Really?" When Xianfeng heard this, he was deeply moved!

This is one of our own!

Inner city of Beijing.

Since Dorgon led the Eight Banners Army more than 200 years ago, he took advantage of the opportunity when Li Zicheng had just entered Beijing and had not yet established a firm foothold, and took advantage of Wu Sangui's opportunity to do something big, and established Beijing in one fell swoop, the inner city of Beijing has become the home of the Eight Banners. Hundreds of thousands of old Beijingers from the Ming Dynasty who had lived here for generations were driven out of the city and died of starvation and freezing, and the good houses and household registrations in the inner city of Beijing were all given to the Bannermen who moved from outside the Great Wall.

Along with the good house and good household registration, they also got the iron-clad crops that should have been eaten by generations, and most of the Qing officialdom. The cake of the Qing officialdom was not big to begin with, and the Eight Banners took away at least two-thirds of it with one cut! The share left for Han officials was not much, and most of them had to borrow "rental loans". Even if they passed the three consecutive examinations, as long as they did not reach the level of Hanlin, they generally had to pay to "rent an official position", and if they had no money, they had to borrow.
And through the high-level financial operation of "renting officials and lending", the Eight Banners descendants among the 49% could take away a large sum of the money that the Han officials had embezzled with great effort.

The Qing Dynasty, at least, did not treat those Eight Banners descendants unfairly in terms of money.

However, this kind of good days that have lasted for generations seems to be coming to an end recently!
First of all, half of the Qing Dynasty’s officialdom will be lost!

Half of the country is almost gone, so the officialdom cake is naturally half smaller! Not to mention that the Eight Banners children can't go to Hong Xiuquan's side, even Luo Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang, and Zeng Guofan's side, there are no positions for the Eight Banners children. Even if Zeng Guofan hangs the name of Zeng Jia. Guofan, there are still few positions for the Eight Banners children.

After all, Zeng Guofan's militia followed the path of soldiers serving their generals, and had to rely on the interpersonal relationship network of clans, fellow villagers, teachers and students, and in-laws to form a bottom-up dependent relationship. How could a group of men in Beijing get involved?

As for Luo Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang, and Jiang Zhongyuan, they did not leave any position for the Eight Bannermen, and drove away all the bannermen in the territories and government offices controlled by them.

At the same time as half of the Qing Dynasty’s officialdom was lost, “renting official positions and loans” also began to explode in large numbers!
Regardless of whether the provinces in the south that were taken by the Taiping Army were completely lost or not, the Han officials who owed money to the King of Hell became damned deadbeats! These people either "disappeared from the officialdom" and disappeared! Or they surrendered to the generals who had soldiers under their command - but they just didn't pay back! Or they simply raised a little militia, even if there were only three or five hundred people, they couldn't fight against the Taiping Army, but they were enough to default on their debts.

Therefore, throughout the third year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign, all the Eight Banners descendants in the city of Beijing, from top to bottom, were in bad luck!

They finally made it to the fourth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign and thought their luck could change, but they didn't expect to run into the biggest deadbeat!
Emperor Xianfeng wanted to be a deadbeat and give up the few crops that were enough to support his life.

In order to avoid paying the debt, the emperor colluded with Han military leaders such as Zeng Guofan, Luo Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang, and Jiang Zhongyuan, selling them official hats as frontier officials while instructing them to write letters to request the Eight Banners troops to march south.
Are they fucking treating the Eight Banners men as fools?
What do those Han warlords need the Eight Banners for? It is not the early Qing Dynasty. The "loyal ministers" of the two or three dynasties cannot defeat the peasant army, so they want to ask the real Manchus for help.

If we were to go to Manchuria now, we would have to fight a battle. Didn't Changsha fall just like that? Didn't the Jiangbei camp just disappear just like that? Luo Xueyan didn't have any Eight Banners soldiers under his command, so Shanghai is still fine.

It was obvious that this old rascal Xianfeng wanted to use the "request for troops" from those Han military leaders to force everyone to desert.

As long as the men in the city are scared, he will have a reason to cut everyone's crops.

This is clearly treating everyone as fools!

Fortunately, there is a Japanese master who has shown us the way forward. We don't have to go to the south to be a "real Manchu", we can just go to the Wanping New Army Camp to serve as soldiers!

The Qing Dynasty was clearly training its troops right outside Beijing, so why didn't they allow the genuine Eight Banners soldiers to join the camp?
What Senggelinqin? Which banner is he from? What is his surname? Why do you bully others like that?

The bannermen in Beijing are not easy to deal with. Originally, they didn't know how to fight the emperor, but now someone finally showed them the way. What else is there to say? Anyway, they have nothing to do, so they can go to Wanping Camp every now and then!

Therefore, outside Senggelinqin’s military training minister’s office, there were crowds of men who wanted to join the army every day!
"Monk King, why don't you let us, the Eight Banners disciples, defend the Qing Dynasty?"

(End of this chapter)